This book interrogates the transplantation of the rule of law (ROL) in postconflict societies, framing it as the problematic attempt to fit a square peg into a round hole. The ROL, traditionally celebrated as a cornerstone of liberal democratic order, is reexamined as a Western legal construct that encounters severe difficulties when imposed on societies with long-standing local practices and cultural modes of justice. Focusing on the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dunn traces how the circulation of international legal reforms has shaped local understandings of legality, justice, and harm. Deploying the Emergent Hybrid Legality (EHL) as a central analytic model, Dunn sheds light on the dynamic process by which individuals and communities engage overlapping legal systems, shifting their legal consciousness in response to changing sociopolitical realities (4) “to resolve disputes and redress harms, and reflects the population’s needs and desires” (148). Crucially, it illuminates the negotiation between liberal legal tenets, donor-driven reforms, and deeply embedded customary mechanisms. In seven chapters, Dunn demonstrates that people pursue justice through both formal and informal avenues, and she destabilizes the assumption that liberal legality can be transplanted unproblematically into non-Western societies.
Chapter One establishes the theoretical foundation, situating legal consciousness at the intersection of literacy, custom, and institutional practice through a four-part cycle that includes assumptions and expectations, interventions, outcomes, and reaffirmed commitments, which serve as a heuristic for interrogating how ROL projects unfold in practice. Dunn problematizes the tendency to evaluate ROL solely in terms of “success” or “failure,” instead revealing the “unexpected outcomes of legal reforms associated with ROL building” (6). The Eastern DRC presents a compelling case study due to its experience with armed conflict, fragile peacebuilding, and state reconstruction.
Chapter Two advances the concept of legal consciousness, identifying five subjective components, namely knowledge, perception, judgment, ideology, and worldview. Dunn persuasively argues that legal consciousness cannot be understood in purely normative terms but is profoundly shaped by personal and communal experiences. The notion of “contradictory legal consciousness” (34) is especially salient in disputes over harm naming and competing logics of justice, which reveal the plural and contested nature of legality. By situating EHL within this debate, Dunn contributes to the decolonization of socio-legal thought, demonstrating that legality in Eastern DRC cannot be reduced to liberal metrics of justice delivery. Chapter Three outlines the author’s nine-month field research in Uvira, incorporating ninety-four semi-formal interviews and ten group discussions. Although methodologically rich, the chapter might have been more effective if it had been incorporated into the introduction, as some descriptive material risks redundancy. Nevertheless, the transparency regarding positionality and research limitations enhances the study’s credibility.
In Chapter Four, Dunn examines sensibilization strategies aimed at reshaping local legal consciousness through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), theater, media, and training programs. Dunn critiques these interventions as manifestations of the “saviour-economic complex,” whereby external actors impose priorities at the expense of local agency. The donor-recipient dynamic privileges international perspectives, while community needs remain secondary. Importantly, while major crimes such as sexual violence and murder are channeled into formal courts, other disputes remain within customary frameworks.
Chapters Five and Six offer practical analysis beyond theoretical insights. Chapter Five analyzes statutory rape and early marriage, showing that communities often prioritize reconciliation and restorative justice over punitive approaches. Through vivid case studies, Dunn demonstrates how levels of legal consciousness directly influence engagement with liberal legal provisions. Chapter Six turns to popular justice (vigilantism) and witchcraft that expose the profound legacies of colonial law’s refusal to recognize witchcraft. Mob justice and communal retribution illustrate how legality is mediated through popular understandings of harm. By weaving first-person reflections into her analysis, Dunn captures the realities of hybrid legalities. Witchcraft disputes, for instance, are simultaneously negotiated through mediation, NGOs, and family networks while invoking formal statutes (126).
Chapter Seven synthesizes these findings, emphasizing the tension and complementarity of diverse legal logics. Rather than treating colonialism as the central explanatory frame, Dunn situates her analysis within the enduring presence of liberal legalism as the dominant model of development. This positioning strengthens her argument regarding the legality in the Eastern DRC as a contemporary site of negotiation between international norms and local agency.
Dunn offers a valuable corrective to gender-neutral approaches to law and justice by analyzing gendered harms and disputes, women’s rights, and gender justice, such as gender legal awareness of wartime rape, forced and early marriages. The stereotypical categorization of women as witches due to their age and gender is a popular example of how justice is applied as a model in dealing with tensions between popular worldviews and knowledge. Despite its strengths, certain themes are unnecessarily repeated across several chapters. The focus on Uvira, while methodologically sound, is not fully representative of Eastern DRC, making some generalizations problematic. Moreover, while Dunn persuasively demonstrates the failures of donor-driven legal reforms to incorporate local justice mechanisms, she stops short of proposing pathways for reconciling international and indigenous approaches. Overall, Dunn succeeds in providing “a rich account of legal-justice that helps us better understand the complexity of the law and justice in people’s everyday lives” (59). The author offers an innovative framework for grasping how communities navigate between formal and informal systems of justice. By centring local agency and exposing the limitations of liberal legalism, Dunn challenges scholars to rethink the epistemological assumptions underpinning rule of law reform in Africa.
